Goering Center Provides Help For Family Firms From: University of Cincinnati Currents Date: February 18, 2000 By: Carey Hoffman A family business can be tricky business. Beyond the normal routines and complexities involved in running a typical business, a family business presents an additional set of personal considerations. Life at work quickly gets complicated when the people you are making decisions about are related to you. That is where the College of Business Administration's Goering Center for Family and Private Business intervenes. More specifically, with a new certificate program started this year called "The Next Generation Institute," the center is helping a new set of 23 young leaders from Cincinnati businesses better cope with the special challenges ahead of them. For instance, a session last week dealt with issues of compensation. While those issues can be difficult enough in a regular business, they can be nightmarish in a family business-setting. Gary Hudson, a seminar participant and president of precision instrument-maker Mercury Instruments Inc., drew nods and knowing laughs when he told the four others at his table that he always strives for clear delineation at the holidays between compensation and Christmas presents. "Take care of those grandkids," he joked, is not necessarily an easy statement to interpret in a family business setting. "The issues we are dealing with at the Goering Center are issues that are not dealt with anywhere else to the degree we do here," said Goering Center director Kent Lutz. "Issues like succession, estate planning, strategic planning, facilitating a family council, utilization of an outside board of advisers to help manage the business - those are specific topics we can really help with." The "Next Generation" program began meeting on a monthly basis in October and will continue through July. As the year has progressed, the Goering staff has discovered that seminar participants are most interested in learning through case studies that encourage class interaction. At the compensation session, presenters from CPA firms Deloitte & Touche and Barnes, Dennig & Co. made presentations on current compensation issues. Then Goering Center executive director Sid Barton, head of CBA's management department, set the class up for interactive discussions on what they had heard. "If there are kids coming into the business and Uncle Bob, one of the original partners, is getting older and not contributing as much, the kids may see that as a factor in their not getting paid as much as they are worth," Barton told the class. "They see it as a zero-sum game. "So how do you have that discussion on what is equitable? Communication, on an honest level, about compensation can't be overemphasized. It has to be put out on the table and, deep down inside, Uncle Bob wants it to be out on the table." Building relationships with others in the community is one of the long-term benefits participants can take away from the program, Lutz says. In a similar vein, the program has also matched up participants with experienced business people from the community as mentors. When the seminar wraps up this summer, participants will earn a certificate of accomplishment which can be added to their other credentials to demonstrate success and knowledge in the specialized area of family businesses. Goering Center seeks family business nominations As part of its goal of serving family businesses in Greater Cincinnati, the Goering Center for Family and Private Business is seeking nominations for its first annual Family Business of the Year awards. Nominations are open until April 30. Four family businesses will be honored: one with under 100 employees, one with 100 employees or more, one that exemplifies outstanding innovation and one that demonstrates exceptional community service. Nominations can come from any source. Once the nomination period closes, nominated companies will be sent application forms that must be returned by June 30. A dinner honoring the winners is scheduled for Aug. 29 at the Gregory Centre. For nomination forms or additional information, contact the Goering Center at (513) 556-7185.